WWW Wednesday (March 9th)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open to all to participate. Why not join in and let us know what’s on your reading list this week…

To join in, just answer the following three questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading…

Dead Wake by Erik Larson

This is taking some reading as there is no actual dialogue, I’m assuming because it’s non-fiction. It doesn’t read like a reference book though and you know what, I might actually learn something.

The blurb

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

I recently finished

The Ice Twins by S.K Tremayne

I really enjoyed this book; it’s a bit creepy, a little chilling but still feels realistic enough to be believable…the remote location is however questionable (as discussed on last weeks post!).

The blurb

A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity – that she, in fact, is Lydia – their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past – what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?

What’s up next?

The Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith

I’d seen this book reviewed on Cleo’s and Hayley’s blog and it sounded like just my kind of read. I was lucky enough to be accepted for a copy via Netgalley.

The blurb

Set in 1920, The Jazz Files introduces aspiring journalist Poppy Denby, who arrives in London to look after her ailing Aunt Dot, an infamous suffragette. Dot encourages Poppy to apply for a job at The Daily Globe, but on her first day a senior reporter is killed and Poppy is tasked with finishing his story. It involves the mysterious death of a suffragette seven years earlier, about which some powerful people would prefer that nothing be said…

Through her friend Delilah Marconi, Poppy is introduced to the giddy world of London in the Roaring Twenties, with its flappers, jazz clubs, and romance. Will she make it as an investigative journalist, in this fast-paced new city? And will she be able to unearth the truth before more people die?

I’m so pleased that you’re going to read The Jazz Files next, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did – it was one of my favourite books that I read last year. Thank you so much for linking back to my review, I really appreciate that.

Larson does have a way of writing non-fiction that makes it seem almost fictional. Easy learning!
I have Dead Wake near the top of my book pile, so I haven’t read that one yet, but Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts were pretty solid.

I love your comment about Dead Wake not reading like a textbook. I love that about Larson. I never feel like I’m learning but I’m learning a lot from him. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!